Monthly Archives: September 2014

It is sad that today is your last day in Technology world and I have to say good-bye to you with a heavy heart. You were the first medium through which I was able to get in-touch with many friends. Not only I found new friends but also found many old friends whom I had lost in this densely populated World. You also have been a great help in maintaining relationships with all of them.

No doubts that since last 4 years I have not been using your service and have not signed-in since Facebook took over all your loyal users. I admit that I also shifted to Facebook as I had no choice left with me. But trust me I always liked you and your services. I still recollect me joining you way back in 2006 after one of my friend had sent me invitation to join (those days one could only join Orkut with invitations only and I was feeling a privilege user then).

The looks of your home page, the space to update on what I am up to, leaving scraps for others, uploading pictures, videos, sharing stuff, suggestions to add friends, changing of themes were simply the best tools during those days. Thanks for all the testimonials I received from my friends because of you. I will always love you for that particular feature of yours. No one could beat you during that time. And you were the trendy social networking website to be visited in India.

All this made you the #1 social networking website. You were the inventor of social networking. You taught the world how to keep in-touch with others and making others aware of the latest happening in one’s life.

But somehow I feel that you got carried away easily and you never paid attention to your security settings. This allowed anyone easy access to users data and hence there was lots of security breach in you. There was no privacy for users and hence people like me also got reluctant to share more with you. Even there was lot of hacking complaints from users and no proper care was taken by you for avoiding such instances.

By the time you realized it was too late for you to regain your position and already another competitor “Facebook” was in full swing. I too joined Facebook in 2008 and was happy to see lots of improvement in-terms of privacy. This prompted me and even others too to become more active on Facebook and with hopes that you will improve and you will be back with full strength.

It is so sad that till date there has not been any improvement in your services and hence you have left with no option but to quit the technology world. I wish you had been prompt enough to get yourself revamped and such situation would have not arrived.

I am sorry for my rude comments to you. Please don’t feel bad. I will always remember you as my first social networking website, which connected me to many of my friends. I wish you good luck and hope you come back with rejuvenated Avatar with good features as compared to Facebook. I would be the happiest person to see you back. I promise I will be the first user to join my old friend and will stop using all other social media websites.

I am feeling so proud and happy while writing this; The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) informally known as Mangalyaan has been successfully launched today into Orbit of Mars. It’s a historic moment for all of us making India the first country in the world to enter orbit of Mars in its maiden attempt.

ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) has become the fourth space agency in the world to reach Mars along with Soviet Space program, NASA and European Space Agency. Mangalyaan was launched on 5th November 2013 (originally it was going to be launched on 28th October 2013 but got delayed due to some technical glitch).

Social Media is flooded with so many messages congratulating our scientist and all those involved in the successful launch. Even our PM, Mr. Narendra Modi personally congratulated all of them. It’s indeed a proud moment for all of us.

Comparitive costs

The Mangalyaan completed its journey in the lowest cost ever made by any country. The estimated figure of cost for this mission was Rs.4.54 million (approx US$74 million) which is less than the total cost for making any Hollywood movie. If one counts the cost per km then it comes slightly over Rs.11 per km or in other words cheaper than what auto rickshaws charge are in Mumbai. If you go more deeply in calculating then the overall cost of the project is equivalent to a contribution of Rs.4 (four) per head from every Indian. So one can imagine how with a miniature budget our scientist have made this mission possible.

Kudos to ISRO and all those directly or indirectly involved for making the MOM successful. India has so much potential resources that if used in a better way then we are just unstoppable.

I read it when you said you will have all of Kashmir. My first reaction was anger. But it all subsided gradually and transformed to humor. So much for your awesome, power-packed and vote-begging speech. So much for the passion with which you ‘acted’ that may even give Sunny Deol of Gaddar a run for his money! I know about your family’s fixation with Kashmir, but Mr Zardari, let me first give you an insight about how we Indians function. Spare this a minute, will you?

Do you know that we do not leave even a rupee in change from the autowalla even if we are running late for work? We will wait until the autowalla empties all of his coins and finds that one coin shimmering amidst his palm in a tiny circle! Only then we will let him speed off and go running after our…

I just realized that I have completed 30+ sessions of cycling which means 30+ days of cycling completed since I started from 5th June 2014. I use an app called Runtastic which help me keep track of my cycling route, number of cycling sessions, distance traversed till now. the time taken etc. So according to the app’s statistics I cycled 141 kms in 33 sessions which is on an average 4.2 kms per session.

Here are some things which I have learn and one has to be cautious while cycling.

Driver’s sucks – I start my cycling as early as 7 am. I know during this time there is less traffic but at that time no one pay heeds to the traffic signals or any sort of traffic rules. The cars and the buses and even autos just zoom past you just inches away.

Cycle to the left side – We have learn from childhood that cycling should be done on the left side of the road, but does one realize the pathetic conditions of the road, specially the left sides of the roads where lots of mud, stones and all shit of garbage is just lying and no responsible department cleans it.

Come rains and one can see pot holes filled with stagnant water on the left side of the road and a cyclist has no option but to pass thru it. And one small stone even makes your bottom go up in the air and thud you come down back on the seat. Just imagine the jerks one feels on the back side of the hips and thus making us measure the deepness of the pot holes 🙂

Keep your self hydrated – have enough water before you start cycling. Water helps to keep body temperature in control.

Bottom line is don’t expect any vehicle to show respect for you. They all are ruthless. I personally many times while crossing major junctions, literally have walked and not cycled due to the rashness of the drivers.

Hoping that the bigger vehicle owners learn to respect the cyclist and treat them in a better way 🙂

Today being a Monday, as it is the first day of the week and what a way to start … well actually not on a very good note.

I had my school reunion last Saturday and had a blast till late night. The hangover of the party was still seen in my body as I got up on time and slept again, hence I got late leaving for office from home itself. The hangover was not of boozing too much, but I being a part of the organizing team, had been slogging very hard so that the reunion event goes off well with the other organizers so that all school friends could have a memorable party. The toll of additional work all these days (other than my normal office work) and lots of dancing on the party night has taken a toll on me.

To add to the late leaving from home; my shoe sole gave way. As I was walking from the station to my office, in between the sole of my right shoe came out and I did not feel it till I walked a couple of more steps wondering what’s making me walk with uneven balance. I looked behind and there was my shoe sole completely in a dead state.

I had no option but in an embarrassing state to pick it up with my cross eyes watching passers-by and trying to avoid any eye contact with them. I immediately kept it in a polythene bag (luckily I had one in my laptop bag). Also since it is my regular route of travel to office, I knew one cobbler who sits just few meters away from the incident spot. I somehow hobbled with my left shoe sole still intact and the right shoe sole in the polythene bag and made it to the cobbler.

I got it mended and the cobbler ate up my 15 more minutes (since he had to stick the sole, let it dry it and stitch it) adding to my woes of already late-running-Monday-schedule. I hate being late on Mondays and today was the day where I got doubly late

As I am penning it down, I recollect this is not the first time it has happened to me, and I recollect similar sort of instances which had happened with me in my past and I smile and laugh within myself upon recollecting them .

But on a serious note does it only happen with me? Or is it that you also have faced similar situations?

Today morning after extended weekend (holiday for Ganesh Visarjan) I was too reluctant to get up from by bed. But since I had my office and had to reach on time I forced my self to complete my morning chores quickly so that I could leave for office on time. But somehow I missed my regular train (which rarely happens) and I had to get into the one after my usual train.

No, it was not crowded, nor was it an old train and neither there were any fights for seats too :). Today I had a different type of experience. I had the company of a person sitting next to me; a very heft guy who must be six feet tall with a heavy built. I was sitting at the window seat and as per my daily routine I was enjoying the breeze and reading my book.

So this well-built-muscular-guy having a thick mustache began to snore no sooner the train left the starting point. I was like “What that hell is happening??” and was getting irritated by it. I was not able to concentrate on my reading too. It seems like the guy had not slept for days and he was completing his sleep now.

I somehow started ignoring the thick snoring noise and got engrossed in reading. In the next few minutes I started feeling something very heavy had fallen on my shoulder and the pressure was forcing me to lean on the other side. I was getting sandwiched between the heavy guy on my right side and the window on my left. Its like in a wrestling match, I had been cornered and my opponent (double the weight of mine) was all over me and there was not an inch of space left wherein I could move to save myself.

I with my full strength (all those who don’t know me, I am an average built slim person) forced myself to lean forward and that double-the-weight-guy literally fell sideways on me. He was taken by surprise and he did not realize what had happened. Other passengers who were all this while enjoying the show started giggling. I thought now atleast I will have some space and will enjoy my reading for the rest of the journey. But alas my wish just lasted few minutes and again the guy was all over me. This time I decided to stand up and vacate my seat and offer this guy to lie down instead of falling all over me. And as I was going to do it, his phone rang and he woke up. Luckily I did not have to do what I had thought of :). The next second he realized he had missed his station and hurriedly got down at the next stop.

I know that in Mumbai there are many who work in the night shift and travels back home in the morning, I do understand that sleep is something which is very difficult to hold back. I also have done night shifts in my previous organization and I also have traveled by train back home. But trust me the amount of pressure I was thrown upon by that hefty guy was simply unbearable. He was completely on my shoulder as if I was his pillow.

I seriously hope and cross my fingers that in-future I do not come face to face with the same guy or even experience such a sleeping partner in my train travel.